Category: Fitness

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6 At Home Gym Must Haves

Did you get your workout in today? Some days it really is a struggle. Who has the time and energy to pack your bags and head over to the gym anyways? As a mom, it brings on a bigger challenge, which would lead to a whole ‘nother story! We’ll save that for another day. Today I want to tell you about everything you need in order to create your own at home gym.

The gym can be a great place to workout but it isn’t always for everyone. Gyms can be expensive, crowded, and a bit overwhelming. It costs money for gas to get there, for membership fees, and for childcare. With the money that you spend at the gym, you could use that money to create a gym right in the comforts of your own home.

At home gyms are great! You can work out any time of the day. You don’t have to worry about driving anywhere or wasting the time doing so. You can listen to whatever motivational music you wish. Here are 12 music playlists from Fitness Magazine to keep you going. At home you can feel comfortable wearing whatever you want without anyone judging you. And most importantly you don’t have to worry about who will watch the kids because you are at home with them.

6 Great Products

At home gyms are wonderful. Below are 6 products that you need to start to create your own at home gym. All you need is approximately a 5′ x 7′ open space in your home. You could use your basement, living room, or bedroom. Be creative.

1. Workout DVDs

Workout DVDs are great because it’s like having a personal trainer right in your own home. Follow along with the movie and get in a great workout. The trainers provide lots of encouragement. There is such a variety of workouts that you can choose from. I personally have a small collections of Jillian Michaels DVDs. My favorites include Yoga Meltdown and 30 Day Shred.

2. Hand Weights

Building lean muscles mass is a great ways to burn calories. Even as little as a 5-10 pound hand weight little provide you with results. Using them helps tone up muscles in your arms, shoulders, and upper body.

3. Yoga Mat

If you are doing yoga or just some on floor exercises a yoga mat is a must. They are small and easy to roll up and put away when not in use. They provide cushioning for your spine but also provide a non-slip surface for your hands and feet.

4. Workout Clothes

Of course you will need a nice set of workout clothes. You will want something stretchy and comfortable. A great outfit can also boost your confidence to encourage you to push yourself harder during your workout.

5. A Water Bottle

Don’t forget to stay hydrated! Nothing can beat a great water bottle to help you keep on track with you water goal. Keep it by you at all times. I like using essential oils to flavor my water, a glass bottle is a must!

6. Resistance Bands and Loops

Both banded and tubular resistant bands are a wonderful addition to your gym. They are inexpensive and small in size. Adding resistance is a good way to build strength in your muscles. they can be used in a variety of workouts. Here are 4 at home resistance band workouts from Fit as a Mama Bear.

Conclusion

Don’t break the bank! Going to the gym is not a must. They are downfalls to the gym such as travel time, cost, overcrowding, and child care issues. Having a gym right is your own home is an economical and a handy way to get your workout in. Some products you need to start your at home gym include a workout DVD, hand weights, a yoga mat, workout clothing, a water bottle, and resistance bands just to name a few.

How to Beat a Weight Loss Plateau

I’m sure somewhere on your weight loss journey you have come to a point at one time or another where your weight loss starts to level out. You are not gaining nor losing any more weight. You have hit a plateau! It can be very frustrating and you might want to even throw in the towel. I have 10 tips for you to help you through this struggle.

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1. Adjust Your Calorie Intake

I know, your probably sick out hearing all about calories. If you are stuck at a point in your weight loss journey where you are no longer losing weight anymore, you need to evaluate you caloric intake. How many calories are you consuming? If your goal is 1,600 calories, try decreasing that goal to 1,400 calories per week. It may not seem like much each day but over the course of a week this will decrease your total weekly calorie intake by 1,400 calories (almost 1/2 of a pound). If you continue this for 2 1/2 weeks you should have lose 1 pound. One pound toward you weight loss goal just by tweaking your diet.

2. Focus on the Quality of Your Food

OK so it’s not all about calories. The amount of your calories does matter, but so does the kind of calories that you are eating. Take a look at the food that you are eating. Are you eating healthy foods or not so healthy foods? You need to make sure you are avoiding junk food, fast foods, soft drinks, ect. Include more super foods in your diet and make as many meals as you can from scratch. If you need some ideas-> This post contains lists of foods you should be eating. Your body is able to digest whole foods easier than anything that is processed. Your body has a tendency to hold onto all those extra chemicals and additives in fat stores of your body. This makes it harder for your body to shed that fat.

While you want to strive to eat healthy foods, you also want to focus on you macros. What are macro nutrients you ask? I’ll give you a simple rundown of this. Every food that you eat can be classified into 3 different groups: carbohydrates, fats, and protein. You should focus of how much of these you are eating each day. For example, for weight loss try to get 40-50 % of your calories from protein, 30-40% for fat, and 10-20% of carbohydrates. It is a high protein, low carbohydrate diet which will give you the fastest results when trying to lose weight. Overwhelmed by the idea if this? Try a fitness app on you phone or tablet like Lose It or MyFitness Pal. Get the new Jillian Michaels app for custom fitness programs and meal plans. Workout anywhere and cancel anytime. These apps have calorie counters in them that will break down your macro totals, all you need to do is record all the foods you eat each day.

3. Mix Up Your Routine

Mix up your exercise routine. You want to use different muscle groups often. If your muscles are more active, they will burn more fat. If you have been doing lots of cardio workouts, such as running, try something different such as yoga, kickboxing, or weight lifting. Always have some variety in your workouts. I have always enjoyed Jillian Michaels for her tough love used to push you harder during your workouts. I have several DVDs of her’s that I used at home. Below are some of my favorites!

4. Be Mindful of Snacks

When you’re counting your calories for the day, make sure you are recording ever bite that you take! It may not seem like much but all calories need to be counted. Always include all the snacks that you eat in your food journal. Click HERE to grab this free printable pictured below. Included in this bundle is a food journal that you can easily record your food intake on. Even an apple contributors 100 calories to your daily total. A handful of pretzels is also roughly 100 calories. And also things you maybe wouldn’t think of like coffee creamer. 2 T of creamer is 60 calories. All of these calories certainly can add up during the course of your day possibly causing you to exceed your goal calorie total for the day.

5. Know Your Numbers

When was the last time that you were in to the doctor for a check-up? If you are struggling to lose weight, perhaps there is some under-lying health condition that could be preventing this. One of these health conditions is hypothyroidism which can be checked with a simple blood test. Having hypothyroidism slows down your metabolism rate making it harder to burn calories. It also increases feelings of fatigue, low energy, and muscle and joint pain which makes it hard to stay motivated to exercise. Think maybe you might have hypothyroidism? This is some more info on it from the Mayo Clinic.

6. Lack of Sleep

Are you sleeping well at night? If your sleep is lacking, it puts extra stress onto your body. It causes your body’s cortisone levels to increase which can increase fat accumulation in your body. Lack of sleep can also increase you hunger during the day. If your hungry all the time, it’s harder to stick to your diet! Decreased metabolism is also common with lack of sleep.

7. Know Your BMR

Your BMR is the amount of calories that your body needs at rest. This number may be different than the standard recommended calorie intake. By knowing your BMR, you are able to help determine the correct amount of calories that you need to consume each day. If you are consuming more calories then are needed, they will be stored in your body for a later time. Here is BMR calculator that can determine this amount for you.

8. Stay Hydrated

Dehydration increases hunger. Your body can easily mistaken feelings of thirst for hunger. If you are feeling hungry in between meals, try drinking a full glass of water and waiting 30 minutes. Try to drink more water! Here is a link to our 7 Day Water Challenge to help you get into the habit of drinking more water. Beside keeping your body hydrated, water is SO great for you. Drinking lots of water helps increase energy, flush toxins from your body, improves your skin, boosts your immune system, and can help prevent headaches. Are you drinking enough water? It is recommended to drink 8 8oz glasses of water each day.

9. Increase Your Muscle Mass

Ever thought of lifting some weights? Even the use of small hand weights can help you increase muscle mass. By increasing your muscle mass, you body’s fat burning is also increased. Weight lifting increases body’s lean body mass which helps you burn calories quicker.

10. Eat More Protein

For weight loss, it is recommended that you eat a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. This will get you fastest results! So watch your carbs and know the macros that your body really needs. While exercising your muscles needs protein to stay healthy. Protein is needed for muscle maintenance and repair.

Let’s Sum Things Up

When you hit a place in your weight loss journey where you are not losing any more weight, you need to take a moment to evaluate your weight loss plan. Make sure you are taking in the right amount and types of calories. Switch up your exercise routine and incorporate some weight lift. Get a check-up at the doctors office if your are due. Also make sure that you are drinking enough water and getting enough sleep. After evaluating all these different things, set some new goals and crush them!

How to Lose Weight in 5 Easy Steps

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5 Steps to Weight Loss

So, you are wanting to lose weight but you’re not quite sure where to start? Great for you! I am going to lay it out in five easy to follow steps. First of all, you will need to ask yourself some questions. How much weight do you want to lose? How do you intent to lose the weight? What changes do I need to make in my life in order to loss the weight? What are the benefits of me losing weight and why do I want to lose it? Write the answers of these questions down on a piece of paper. I have a printable for you to fill out HERE with these questions included. This will be the start of your weight loss journal. So here are the 5 steps below. I will go through them each in further detail.

Step 1: Set Goals for Yourself

So this goes with the question “How much weight do you want to lose?”. Goals are important to set because it creates a motivational drive to something that you are wanting to accomplish. Goals are something that you are going to strive for, something you want to complete. For example, your goal may be that you want to lose 50 pounds, to drink more water, or to eat more vegetables. Your goals should be specific and easy for you to measure to determine that you have or have not met your goals during a set amount of time. Be very specific when writing out your goals. When losing weight, you need to set small (short term) goals and also big (long term) goals. When you accomplish your small goals, it makes you feel good and provided you with motivation to pushing yourself toward your big goals. You will reach your long term goals as you complete all of your short term goals. Write these goals down and reference often.

Some examples of short term goals:

Lose 5 pounds in one month.

Drink 8 glasses of water everyday for 2 weeks straight.

Workout at least 5 days/week every week this month.

Some examples of long term goals:

Lose 50 pounds.

Fit into size 8 jeans.

Fell comfortable wearing a bikini.

Step 2: Create a Plan

This is a plan on how you are going to reach the goals that you created in step one. To loss weight, simple put is to eat less calories and exercise more. It’s revolves around a theory of calorie intake and calories burnt to figure out your goal amount of calorie “budget” for the day. If you are trying to loss weight, a recommended calorie goal would be between 1200-1600/day (not to exceed). You can “out eat” any amount of exercise that you do. When you are looking to lose weight, a high protein/low-carb diet is recommended for the fastest results. For more on what to eat, check you my other post on clean eating. A restrictive diet will only work short term. Following a clean eating diet will help you keep the weight off that you have worked so far to lose.

To lose one pound, you need to be at a calories deficit of 3,500 calories. This means that if you decrease your calorie allowance (2,000 standard) by 500 calories for 7 days straight, you will lose 1 one in a week.

One pound=3,500 calories

500 x 7=3,500

So instead of consuming 2000 calories for the day, you would set a limit of 1500. You will want to count your calories and record the foods that you are eating. There are two ways to count calories: read labels and write it in a food diary or use an app to record them such as Fitness Pal or Lose It!. I personally have used the free version of Lose It! and it was great way to count my calories and stay on track. Also on a plus side, Lose it! also creates a nice chart to follow your weight losses and gains. If you are a fan of Jillian Michaels, she also has a fitness App! See the link below for a seven day free trial. It include workout videos and support groups.Get meal plans, workouts and the support you need to get fit and strong with Jillian Michaels. Start your 7-Day Free Trial!
In addition to cutting calories, you need to start an exercise program. Pick exercises that you like and plan to do them at least 5 times per week. Switch it up though! Don’t do the same exact thing everyday. You want to be doing different activities that will use different muscle groups. Plus if you did the same thing everyday, I’m sure you’d get bored with it and want to quit. Plan to exercise at least 30 minutes per day 5 days out of the week. Also don’t forget to stretch! If you are new to exercise and are taking prescription medications, it is always advised to consult for doctor before starting an exercise regime.

Step 3: Implement the Plan

This is simply putting your plan into action. This will be making changes in your lifestyle in order to meet your goals. I recommend eating Clean foods as mentioned in step 2. You also want to increase your protein intake of lean meats and decrease your carbohydrate intake, especially after lunch. Follow your set calorie budget by counting your calories. Programs that involve meal replacement shakes do not work on a long term basis. These shakes are also so bad for your health. Many have added laxatives, processed ingredients, thickeners, added sugar, and are low in protein. Here is a detailed post on why not to drink meal replacement shakes by Dr. Axe. Instead of these shakes, you need to learn to eat healthy. Track you calories and remember that every bite counts. I would recommend recording everything that you eat. Recording your food intake will make you feel accountable for everything you eat and you will be able to see how many calories you have left for the day.

At Country Clean N Fit, we have created an easy to use daily food and exercise journal for you to use. There are spaces designated to record your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks that you have during the day. There are also glasses on it to cross off as you go through your day. Don’t forget to drink your 8 glasses of water! Yes, I said water: not soda, milk, or juice. Fun Fact: Water has zero calories and will help you fell fuller longer. You will also record your calories burnt to calculate your daily calorie budget today. Click the link below for your free printable to use. It really is handy! And it’s FREE, we’ll e-mail it directly to you.

Get up and keep moving! Track your exercise everyday and write that down on a fitness calendar. Aim for at least 5 times per week. Keep striving to compete the goals from step one. If you are struggling, find a workout buddy, join a gym, or sign-up for a yoga class. Stay motivated and don’t quit. One thing that I had did, was sign-up for a 5K race. I had a set date that I was aiming for. A goal that I created, was to run 3.1 miles straight without stopping to walk. Once I obtained that goal, I worked at decreasing the time that it took me to run that distance. These were a couple goals that I had to enable me to loss weight. Everyday that I was able to go out running, I was excited to run and highly motivated to push myself to get going because I wanted to reach my goals and to beat my own personal record.

Rewarding yourself when you hit certain goals can also be a motivating factor. Food rewards are not recommended. So don’t make your reward as going out for ice cream or eating out at your favorite restaurant. Make a reward a material object such as new workout shoes, a purse, or new clothes. Go get a massage or have your nails done when your hit your half way mark to your long term weight loss goal. Think of these rewards while you are working out to help drive your motivation.

Step 4: Follow Your Progress

Did you reach the short term goals that you set for yourself? If not, you need to create a plan on how you are going to get that accomplished. When you reach your short term goals, create new ones!! If you find that you are getting your workouts in and you still aren’t losing weight, re-evaluate and reflect on your workouts and your eating habits. What is the intensity levels of your workouts? Are you skipping your workouts some days? How long are you working outs? Are you exceeding your calorie budget some days? There likely are changes that could be made.
Re-evaluate your goals at the end of every month. Did you reach them or did you not? Make notes in your journal from time to time. Are you feeling hungry? Make note of food cravings that you are having. What are you finding that you are struggling with? You may need to adjust your original plan that your created in step 2. If you are struggling, find a work-out buddy. There are also many online groups that you can join that let you reach out to others with the same goals.

Step 5: Reach Your Goals

Congratulations you did it! You reached your long term goal. Once you have reached your goal weight, you still want to continue with your healthy lifestyle habits. If you go back to the way you where living, you are quite likely to re-gain the weight that you just worked so hard to lose. Maintenance is now what you need to strive for. Continue working out. You should be exercising on a regular basis to keep your muscles strong, help increase your energy levels, and improve your mental health. Regular exercise helps decrease the likely-hood of heart disease, stroke, depression, arthritis, and type II diabetes. So still keep moving and eating well. Please continue with your healthy lifestyle!

So, Here a Re-cap:

There are 5 steps you need to follow to be successfully losing weight. First, you need to set a goal in which you want to reach. Lets say you want to reach a total weight loss of 50 pounds. That is your long term goal. To reach that goal, you need to eat better and exercise more. Lower your daily calorie budget somewhere between 1200 and 1600 calories. Eat healthy clean meals made from whole ingredient foods. Create short term goals that will push yourself to reach your long term goal. Create a fitness plan by choosing how you are going to exercise and when you will do so. You want to workout, 30 minutes per day, at least 5 times per week. Implement you plan- put it all into action. Evaluate your plan (Our Printable Bundle is a great tool to do this with!). If you are not reaching your goals, review your fitness journal and find out why. Create new short term goals as you complete them. Use rewards as motivation if you wish. Keep going until you reach your long term goal.

I hope you have found this post helpful! Good luck on your weight loss goals. I know that you can do it if you put your mind to it. And don’t forget to check out our Food & Exercise Journal and put it to good use.

Click HERE for e-mail updates on new posts about fitness and weight loss. If you like the Food & Exercise Journal, I am currently putting together some great fitness planner printables for anyone to use. Some of these include: a Weekly Calorie Log, a Monthly Weight Loss Tracker, and a 7 Day Water Challenge just to name a few. I’ll let you know when I have it put together! You won’t know when it is useless you sign-up. Don’t miss it.

Food is Fuel, Not Therapy!

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Good Morning and Happy Monday!! Hope all is well with you this morning. Here is this week’s quote: Remember: food is fuel, not therapy. I guess this quote references mindless eating. Snacking because you are bored or perhaps emotional eating. You want to think of food as fuel for you body. Eating fuels your body with protein, sugars, vitamins, minerals, and fats. Pay attention to your macros. Does your body need the food that you are preparing to eat? If not, re-think it.

7 Ways to Prevent Mindless Eating:

Keep unhealthy snacks out of sight, remove them from the counter top.

Do meal planning. Prep healthy meals ahead of time.

Always eat a healthy breakfast. It will start your day off right.

Eats 4-6 smaller healthy meals during the day. Less snacking.

Make sure to drink your water! It will keep you felling full for longer.

Count calories and write everything down that your consume.

Practice portion control, know proper portions sizes.

If you haven’t already, take a minute and check out our Facebook Page. On our page, you will help helpful tips and updates from our blog.

Eating healthy and clean meals is very important to any weight loss journey. Avoid quick and easy “convenience” meals and anything processed. Use methods such as portion control and calories counting to help your weight loss become more successful. Eat healthier and exercise more to drive your body to loss weight. For more of clean eating, check out the post below.

If you are struggling with ideas for healthy meals, check our recipes.

Motivation Monday

She believed she could, so she did!!

Happy Monday! Good morning. So here is your motivational quote for today. She believed she could, so she did. Wherever you are on your journal, keep pushing yourself toward your goals! If your believe that you are able to reach your goals, you just need to keep going girl! If you are struggling, find some help if you need. If what you are doing is not working, re-evaluate your short term goals and plan things differently.

If hope this quote helps. If you believed that you can, you will. Find ways to make it happen. You can do it!! Check out all my fitness quotes HERE.

Three Months From Now

Yes, that is all it takes for you to see results. If you fell discouraged just remember this. You need to remember why you started and focus on that. It can be very easy to get discouraged if you aren’t seeing results as quickly as you would like. But first you need to get started. Once you get a plan together, stick to it! If you realize you don’t like one activity to loss weight, try another. Whatever you do, don’t give up! Create goals and work toward them every day. Set large goals and crush small goals. Hey, every little bit you do gets you closer to achieving your large goals.

CLEAN EATING 101:

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Country Clean-N-Fit is all about Clean Eating and living a healthy lifestyle. So what is clean eating you ask? Firstly, I’ll tell you what it is not. Clean eating is NOT a diet. It is, more so, a concept of what you are eating. It is not restricting what you eat but how you prepare your foods and the ingredients that are used. Clean eating aims to eliminate certain “dirty” things from your diet. I will go more in dept with this in a minute.

Clean Eating- Why I Started:

I found out about clean eating when I was trying to loss weight after my 2nd child. Yes, I was a mom trying to lose that stubborn “baby” weight! The weight just didn’t melt away like it did from breastfeeding like it did with my first child. I was 3 years older, my metabolism wasn’t what it used to be, and I was eating a lot of not so healthy food. I cut out soda from my diet. At one time, I was drinking about 3 cans of soda a day! I was just drained. I switched to diet soda in an effort to decrease my calorie intake.

After a few months of drinking diet soda, I had develop stomach pains. I contributed it to the aspartame in the soda. I then decided to cut out the diet soda and I switched to drinking only tea or coffee for my caffeine intake and pushed myself to drink more water. Lord know us mommies can’t survive without caffeine! That’s a whole ‘nother story!

After a matter of weeks, no more tummy troubles. I felt great! In addition to the fluids that I was drinking, I also took a look at the foods that I was eating. Instant potatoes, canned vegetables, Suddenly Salads, instant Freezer meals, and lunch meat sandwiches just to name a few. These were things that had tasted good but also quick and easy to make. The problem with these foods were all the extra ingredients in them. They were very much processed. I found that a lot of convenience foods were like that.

I made many switches in the food that I was eating. Instead of canned vegetables, I bought frozen. I started cooking more meals from whole ingredients. It may be a little more time consuming but well worth a little effort! On my blog you can find some of these recipes that I have found and that I love! I also make a push to eat more vegetables. Fruits are easy to eat on a regular basic because they are sweet and they taste good. Vegetables on the other hand, take more work & more preparation. Instead of meals with ground beef or roast, I was eating more chicken and turkey.

By switching to clean eating, I was able to lose a majority of my baby weight. There were a few more pounds to go but I am felling pretty comfortable in my skin. I made the switch to eating clean and started exercising. I loved running in high school. After 10 year of not running, I had begun to run again. I found at first that it was hard. I couldn’t believe how out of shape I had been! My knees hurt and I got winded much quicker than I would have liked. I ran several times per week. I would alternate running and walking until I was able to run further distances until I was able to run 2 miles straight.

The next summer, I signed up for and ran my first 5K! I loved running but I had also been doing some yoga and circuit training at home that help me get back to my desired weight. After being pregnant with my 3rd child I have not gotten back into running but have focused on at home workout videos. I have found these workouts are effective if done 3-5 times per week along with follow at clean eating diet. For fitness motivation and tips check out the FITNESS section our website.

Clean Eating – The Fundamentals

Clean eating is simple put, a practice of avoiding processed and refined foods and replacing them with whole foods. These foods include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, grass-fed meats, low-fat dairy products, and unsalted nuts. Foods to avoid would included deli meats, canned vegetables, soda, white rice/flour/pasta, foods with added sweeteners, fast food, fried foods, candy, and juice that not “100% juice”. Buying certain organic foods also cuts back on added chemical such as pesticides. Fruits can contains a numerous amount of these. The “Dirty Dozen” is a list of fruits and vegetables that are contaminated with many pesticides and herbicides. For these fruits, it is recommended for buyers to purchase organic. Here is the 2016 report of these below.

The Dirty Dozen

Strawberries

Apples

Nectarines

Peaches

Celery

Grapes

Cherries

Spinach

Tomatoes

Sweet Bell Peppers

Cherry Tomatoes

Cucumbers

These “dirty” foods are typically ones that don’t have a peel. They are hard to wash to removes these chemicals. Although they are a little more expensive, your health, in the long run, will be greatly benefited by avoiding these foods. Here is a list of fruits and vegetables that you don’t need to buy organic. They are considered the “Clean 15”, (2016 report).

The Clean 15

Avocados

Sweet Corn

Pinapple

Cabbage

Sweet Peas

Onions

Asparagus

Mangoes

Papayas

Kiwi

Eggplant

Honeydew Melon

Grapefruit

Cantaloupe

Cauliflower

Benefits of Clean Eating

But why change your lifestyle to follow the fundamentals of clean eating? When you make the change, you will have increased energy because your body is able to use the foods nutrients more readily. Improved cardiovascular health due to a decrease in salt and an increase of healthy fats. It decreases your risk of developing cancer by decreasing the amount of processed ingredients and added chemicals into your body. Eating more fruits and veggies increases your intake of antioxidants which help fight off cancer. Improved mental health from nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids.

If you eat healthier you will fell better which puts you in a better mood. Decreased risk of diabetics from a decrease in carbohydrates and added sugars.Longevity comes from eating healthy and following an active lifestyle. If you are healthy, you will also have less medical bills. Would you rather pay a little more at the grocery store and a ton more from hospital bills? Prevention of health problems is the key. All of these area great reasons to make a switch!

How Clean Eating Can Help You Loss Weight:

How does clean eating help you lose weight? Along with regular exercise, it will help speed up your metabolism. With an increased metabolism, your body is able to burn fat much more easily. Clean eating focuses on whole grain, healthy fats, lean meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, and lots of water. They suggest that eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day versus 3 large meals. If aiming to loss weight, eat between 1200-1600 calories. And for anyone, you need to watch your portion sizes. Count calories if needed to help keep your portions in check. Clean eating will give you energy and keep you from getting hangry. After a few weeks, you will feel as if you have more energy, your skin will glow, and you will just feel healthier.

So Let’s Sum it all up:

Clean eating is NOT a diet. It is, more so, a concept of what you are eating. It is not restricting what you eat but how you prepare your foods and the ingredients that are used. Clean eating aims to eliminate certain “dirty” things from your diet. Focus on the foods that you eat. Avoid buying the “dirty dozen” useless you buy them organic, the “clean 15” are OK. Clean eating can help prevent many health condition such as heart disease and cancer. It can also help you lose weight by boosting your metabolism. All of these are GREAT reasons to make a switch in your diet and your lifestyle.

Your legs are not giving out, your head is giving up. Exercise and weight loss is a mental challenge not a physical one. This is why I have developed this series of posts. You need good mental strength in order to push yourself to finish a workout and give it your “all”. When you start to feel short of breath or your muscles feel like they are going to give out, don’t give up! You need to push yourself and stay mentally strong. Stay motivated to reach your goals!! Everyone struggles with this from time to time, you’re not alone.

You don’t have to eat less, you just have to eat right. That is part of what clean eating is all about. Clean eating is not a diet but more of a lifestyle. It is not a short term extreme diet to get you quick results that don’t last. When you decide to follow rules of a clean eating, it will be easier for your body to lose weight. Also be mindful of calories. Counting calories is a great way to help you loss weight. A good calorie guideline for weight loss is 1400-1600 calories per day. Skip liquid calories and fill yourself up with healthy foods to nourish your body and fuel your workouts.

Earning your body takes work. It takes motivation and strength to push yourself to reach your goals. To reach them it will take time and a lot of work that only you can do. To loss weight you need to get healthy by stopping bad habits. You will look “better” by developing more self confidence. Eat right by getting rid of junk foods and stocking your kitchen and pantry with healthy foods. And of course to loss weight you need to exercise. It takes work to earn your body, so work for it!